I have to admit I thought that writing about the week in Trondheim would be quite easy, but I was wrong… What a week! I’m so filled up with impressions, experiences, feelings, challenges, moods, laughter and tears. And I feel so privileged to be a part of this.

It all started last Saturday, with 13 excited and nervous ladies. We were wished welcome by the Norwegian coordinator and the week’s therapist. And from that moment the days have been filled with programs.

I think I had expected a lot of theory during the week, supplied with some exercises. But this is really an unusual kind of study. I don’t know how many exercises we did during the week, but it wasn’t few! We’ve really got the opportunity to test out group therapy in real life. And to be honest – it has been both a good and a quite challenging experience. During these kind of processes you get to meet yourself in several ways, both the positive and negative sides of you. Really informative, and really exhausting.

I’m not lying when I say that everybody was in bed before 22.30 almost each night… And we even worked during the nights, because ”dreams” were a big part of our themes.

We’ve been creating a lot this week, both with clay, paintings and written words and texts. Some of my stuff are a bit to personal to share in the blog. But I’ll share some of the exercises with you, along with some pictures, just to give you a tiny taste of it all…

Den første bildet vi malte, var basert på en stemning fra en meditasjon vi hadde først. Den tok utgangspunkt i hvordan vi følte oss her og nå. Slik ble bildet mitt. The first picture we painted, was based on a meditation. We was challenged to focus on our mood and feelings right 'now'. This is how my picture turned out. Også denne oppgaven tok utgangspunkt i en utrolig behagelig meditasjon. En mediatasjon med fokus på pusten. Så fikk vi beskjed om å male et bilde av kroppen vår akkurat slik den kjentes ut da. The next painting was also based on a calming meditation, focused on our breath and breathing. We were told to paint a picture of our body just the way it felt during the meditation. Vi fikk også prøve ut andre materialer, og en av oppgavene var å lage en maske som beskrev måten vi ønsket å møte de andre i gruppa på. We didn't just paint. We also got to play with other materials. One of the challenges was to make ourselves a mask that showed the way we wanted to meet the other people in the group.Noen av oppgavene og utfordringene var skikkelig pyton, og jeg kjente både på frustrasjon, sinne og tristhet. En dag, hvor alt jeg hadde laget bare fikk meg sinna og skuffa, endte jeg opp med å male dette bildet. Jeg malte først selve lyset, i rolige og behagelige farger, fordi jeg ville gi meg selv en fin gave istedenfor å slå meg selv i hodet med hvor dust jeg er og hvor mislykka jeg er... Og lyset ble vakkert og det var en god opplevelse å male det. Men alt det sorte og tunge inni meg var fortsatt der, og jeg måtte bare male noen store, sorte og tunge steiner i bunnen av bildet. Og det merkelige var at den natten hadde jeg en drøm som kan symboliseres med det som skjer når et troll blir jaget opp og ut i lyset. Et skremmende troll som i møtet med solen blir forvandlet til en stein. Noe dør. Noe ufarliggjøres. Så ved å tillate meg selv til å se på mine mørke sider, både det jeg skammer meg over, det som skremmer meg og det som gjør meg sint, så kan det på en måte ufarliggjøres. Bli naturlig. Og ved å male steinene på bildet mitt, fikk bildet plutselig både dybde, tyngde og dimensjoner. Some of the challenges were really hard, and got me both frustrated and sad. And after a tough day, were all my pictures and things just made me angry, I made this picture. First I painted the light, in soft and calm colors, because I wanted to give myself something good instead of keep punching myself in my head telling myself how stupid I am and how dissatisfied I make myself. And the light came out quite well, and made me a bit more happy. But, all the hard and black feelings were still a part of me, and I just had to paint some big, black and heavy rocks at the bottom of the picture. And the strange thing is that I hade a dream the following night. A dream about a troll that got pulled out in the sun. And when the sun hit the troll, it got turned into a big stone. I guess this means that when I allowed myself to look at my darker sides, all the stuff that both embarrased me, frightened me and made me angry, they turned from scary to something natural like a stone. And by adding the stones to my picture, it gave the picture both depth and dimensions. Not only the light and beautiful, but also the dark and more challenging parts of life.